The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-05-04
THE SAME OLD STORY.

How It Was Told i'm Ancient Times.
Love, Devotion and Tetradrachms.
''TelI me, Hiparche, quoth Diomedes,
the scrivener, "teu me, by the love you
bear the gods, is there this night in all
Athens such delight as l, returning from
my toll, have found? This kid is roasted
to perfection, and the spinach more pleases
the palate than the olives Of Cyprus or
the golden apples of Thrace. Where Is
to be found such wine as you this mo-
ment have with your two hands poured
out? And surely where, unless it be upon
the sacred mount in Thessaly, is to be
heard of mortal ears such song as you,
touching your lye, discourse to the plain
tive spondees of Phaon's rejected lover?"
"Now, by Pallas Athene," quoth
Hiparche, ''you say words that are
smoother and do more rejoice me than
the honey of Hymettus. Yet what serv-
ice can 1, o Diomedes, do of which you
are not more than worthy? For Eros and
his seaborn mother shall bear me witness
that since the time the arrow pierced my
breast, kindling there the fire more subtle
than that PrOmetheus stole, to do your
will has been my souls delight"
may" demonstrated Diomedes, gently
disengaging Hiparche's shapely arms
from about his neck, may, dear wife, be
not so demonstrative; see, you have spilled
the WINE upon my GO2db
''The gods save mer' cried Hiparche;
''I had no purpose of that kind, for twas
but this day that I, seeing you approach
our house, said to myself: How clean is
my Diomedes' attirei How well hath he
preserved his tOga and his bUskins from
the last seasOn-surely he will not want
others for months to GOMEZ :"
"By the temple, you must be blind,
Hiparche miner" cried Diomedes. 'UpOn
this toga there are many stains both here
in front and elsewhere. too, where 1 I'M
painted. And, look you, how that my
buskins do bag at the kneesp'
mot so, o Diomedes, - quoth Hiparche.
''Have not eyes to seer Yet, even were
1t as you say-and so it is not-there is
about you q beauty and manly grace that
make all people blind to what you wear.
Helas, al, aif It's not so with meal, al,
helasl not so with your Hiparchel It
has pleased the gods to make me very
human, and though / seek to be comely
in your eyes l find it hard to be so. Look
with your two eyes, 0 Diomedes, upon
this flowing robe of mine and tell me is it
not dowdy? BY Zeus, am ashamed to
be seen wearing it in the AcrOpOlis, the
more SO since but to-day PhaXylla-she
whom I detest-paraded before the house
clad in new gown OF Carthaginiau pur-
pler'
s'By Hercules" protested Diomedes,
''your robe beseems you; it hath preserved
its color and hath not lost its shapeliness.
1 like it well, remembering that paid
MyceIhas the Cretan three tetradrachms
of silver starters for it,
''Nay, by that same Hercules, it's
dowdyr' cried Hiparche, and thereupon
she fell to weeping and to beating of her
breast and to tearing of her hair, uttering
wild oaths to Pallas Athene and calling
the gods TO witness that she wished she
never had been born to wed man who
cared not how his wife looked so long as
he himself was well clothed Whereupon
Diomedes, touched with compassion for
Hiparche, drew from his purse four tetra-
drachms, being his weeks salary, and
babe her buy the raiment she desired.
Now, by the dog, how are the times
changed! In these degenerate days we
have no semblanee to Hiparche, the
Athenian wife! o Zeus and We other gods
immortal, jewellers on high Olympus;
how hardly hast thou dealt with poster
ity, preserving the like of Diomedes
through all ages down to this very mo-
ment, but giving TO our companionship
none such as Hiparcbe to mulct us of our
love, of our devotion and of our tetra-
drachms-ChicagO News